Restaurant review: Yew Tree Restaurant, Muckross Park Hotel & Spa, Killarney
I HAVE never subscribed to the notion that the ability to turn a buck is the pinnacle of human achievement nor will I ever fathom the modern veneration of entrepreneurs as new renaissance beings but I always made an exception for salesman extraordinaire Bill Cullen.
Actually, it was ‘Dr Bill’ I adored, Cullen’s alter ego as portrayed by broadcaster Tom Dunne, an inspired satirical surrealism that eventually led me to conflate factual character with fictional, where even the mawkish treacle of Cullen’s It’s a Long Way from Penny Apples autobiography could be rendered as giddy blossom-filled honey, if imagined as being read in the voice of Dr Bill.
So when the opportunity arose some years ago to attend a Valentine’s dinner in the Muckross Park Hotel (MPH), then owned by the real Bill Cullen and his partner Jackie Lavin, I was after it faster than a shoeless boy scampering down Moore Street after a dropped farthing.
The hotel was then a bizarre temple to Celtic Tiger excess, and dinner, a nondescript affair cooked by a guest chef, was forgotten once swallowed, so my personal highpoint of the visit was when Cullen, working the room after dinner, briefly granted us a personal audience.
As he revved up and delivered his great riff on the necessity of the true ‘entreprenooooor’ surviving on just three hours sleep a night, I giggled like a hysterical schoolgirl.
These days, Bill and Jackie are gone; a new broom sweeps through the hotel.
The gradual makeover is commendably toning down garish excess and a couple of nights in a very pleasant adjoining apartment accommodation, a mere 100 yards from Killarney National Park, holds high appeal.
On our first night, we opt for casual dining in the hotel bar. It is not good.
Suffice to say, I leave regretting having booked for the following day in the hotel’s fine dining Yew Tree restaurant.
The next evening, after a wonderful day roaming the park, appetites are heightened but expectations are low; the menu (Wild Atlantic Way, €59pp) reads well but that is no guarantee and the room’s chocolate box décor, yet to be overhauled, still shrieks of the ancien regime.
Then an amuse bouche arrives from the kitchen, a delicious morsel of house-cured salmon, accompanied by good breads and exquisite Cuinneog butter, one of Ireland’s finest food products.
Maitre D’, Andras, guides us towards an offbeat wine choice, an elegant and well-structured Portuguese Alvarinho/Loureiro grape combo, Allo, Quinta Soalheiro Allo, (2014).
We are now sitting up, paying attention.
Starters arrive. My Heart’s Delight, a squeamish sort, tentatively takes her first ever taste of eel and is mightily impressed by the sweet tender BBQ-smoked meat.
Potato, crab, Granny Smith apple form a mutually inclusive club of supporting tastes and textures, umami-laden oyster emulsion completes a superb dish.
Plump, velvety scallops are equally good, light, bright bacon and dashi dressing offering suitably deferential porcine punch.
My pearlescent fillet of perfectly-cooked John Dory is anointed in a rich buttery sauce sharpened with verjus; MHD’s equally fine turbot straddles a delicious muscular bisque, laden with mussels and orzo pasta.
(A more elemental version of the latter being precisely the type of dish they should be serving in the bar.)
Buttons are opened, stays loosened, we are in our element.
A dessert selection features note-perfect renditions from the classical canon: vanilla panna cotta, citrus tart, chocolate pavé.
My sweet tooth has dulled with age so I opt for an excellent Irish cheese plate but, when Andras persuades me to sample a Dow’s Nirvana ‘Chocolate’ Port, the soft floral notes and dry cocoa finish have me reaching for the unctuous pavé; they make for an ethereal combination.
We wave the white flag as petit fours are boxed for takeaway while my whole being vibrates with sheer contentment.
This is essentially classical French cuisine albeit shot through with a rich produce-derived Hibernian seam but chef John O’Leary executes with such sublime precision and authoritative confidence as to utterly reinvigorate old tropes.
It certainly must be some of the finest cooking to be had in and around Killarney and is the best hotel food I’ve eaten in many a long moon.
If O’Leary can spare a moment to whip the bar offering into similar shape, MPH could become a serious gourmet destination.
As Dr Bill might say, it’s a long way from penny apples!
From 6.30pm, seven nights a week
€153 (excluding tip)
The Verdict
Food: 8.5/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 7.5/10
Atmosphere: 7/10
“Chef John O’Leary’s splendid cooking could yet turn Muckross Park Hotel into a serious gourmet destination”
tel: 064-6623400
www.muckrosspark.com
